Welcome to the first FAFO Friday!

This week Dan and Kwaku dig into:
- The uncanny valley that is AI agents and Moltbook—the "Reddit" that agents built for themselves to complain about humans, create a religion, and behave in ways that freak humans out
- Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI with a Super Bowl ad that's spicy (for cubs and cougars alike)
- We read Claude's "Constitution" and ask: Should AI do what you ask it to do—or what it thinks you _really_ want long-term?
- Why Dan switched from OpenAI to Claude (and what he learned about tone, capability, and custom projects)
- OpenAI scrambles; the market stumbles; Jensen Huang acts like Sam Altman is "just someone I used to know"
- How AEO (AI Engine Optimization) becomes critical in an AI-agent world—and what that means for brand, marketing, and search
- Why social media is already past (dark social won)
- Elon's pivot to humanoid robots, data centers in space, and other cool things we definitely need
- Are we setting higher ethical standards for machines than for tech leaders?

Plus: Friendster, TiVo, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and other asides that we hope you get, but maybe you won't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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- Subscribe to the newsletter and support: https://www.futurearound.com
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Baratunde Thurston wants us to live well with machines — not for us live under them, nor to be their almighty overlords.

Baratunde is a technologist, a comedian, and an Emmy-nominated storyteller who explores interdependence and he gets spicy in this episode. The host of Life With Machines digs into the compromises made in service of building AGI, why strongmen are actually weak, and why CEOs need to stop bending the knee and learn how collective power and strength works.

But he doesn't just critique—he offers builders a concrete path forward, because:

This episode is a banger. You will be inspired to take action!

Chapters:

• (02:00) - “I don't want to live under machines… I also don't want to be like master of the machine”
• (06:25) - Creating good goals for AI systems and products
• (09:00) - “Nothing about us without us” – principles of community-based action
• (11:10) - How Baratunde stays creative and avoids mediocrity when using AI
• (14:10) - Building BLAIR, Baratunde’s AI “co-host” and “producer” on Life With Machines
• (16:50) - “You know nothing, John Snow.” Generative AI systems are not knowledge repositories!
• (20:00) - Practice what you preach: on Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI CEO) and his warning against building “Seemingly Conscious AI”
• (24:26) - The AI funding shell game
• (25:26) - Racing to AGI and the compromises (trust & safety, copyright, etc…) along the way
• (28:56) - How Baratunde reconciles his unease with his own heavy use of AI
• (32:10) - “Comedy will not save us; we will save us.” On the role of comedy vs. authority / authoritarians
• (36:26) - Bending the knee: why Baratunde says tech CEOs need to learn how collective power works
• (38:26) - What builders — what we! — can do (today!) to exercise our power about how these systems will be built
• (40:26) - “If we build these systems in a good way, there’ll be more for everybody…”

Where to find Baratunde Thurston:

• Life with Machines: https://www.lifewithmachines.media/

Support Future Around & Find Out

• Subscribe to the newsletter and support: https://www.futurearound.com
• Support the media — support the future — you hope to see. Please consider a paid subscription to Future Around & Find Out. You’ll also get access to exclusive events and the ability to ask questions of upcoming guests. Learn more: https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade

Sponsor the show?

• Interested in reaching an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers and aligning with future-forward content? Let's talk! Please email show host Dan Blumberg: dan@modernproductminds.com

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Music by Jonathan Zalben

You know what would be awesome? If we could build the future we want — before we muck it up.

Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next.

Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction.

The Webby Awards have honored the show (formerly known as CRAFTED.) as a top tech podcast three years in a row!

On Tuesdays, we feature interviews with the builders changing how we work, live, and play.

On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange.

You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more.

Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now.

So let’s Future Around & Find Out together!

FutureAround.com

(Music by Jonathan Zalben)